Agreed - my father taught Intro Bio at a highly regarding public university for 40 years and thought the AP Bio high school course/exam didn’t even come close to covering what they covered and students who placed out of it ended up struggling if they continued on in bio or biochem.
Someone asked why a college would offer to let students place out or get credit if the AP curriculum is insufficient. My dad would say welcome to academia - he said that the department that made those decisions regarding placing out or course credit didn’t ask the faculty their opinion on those decisions. Not once in 40 years. And I doubt that is different from other large schools. LACs may be different.
IMO, the people you should ask about these decisions are the faculty rather than administrators.